[vadsy]

I'm going to age some nickel Tele hardware, nothing extreme just adding a light dull to the shine. I'm after something in the VOS style to match the set of Duncan Antiquity pickups, not dented and chipped sort of stuff. I have checked out a few vids and I like these the most, no direct contact of acid with the parts but I do wonder about the tuners as they'll need to be rinsed and what is the best way to keep rust and gunk out of those. Please share your tips and experiences. Feel free to post pictures or more videos.

 

[knight_yyz]

You need to neutralize with a base after the acid. Windex works well, water and baking soda 1:1, 4 ounces ammonia to 1 gallon water, but I have no idea how to do that without getting your tuners dunked in liquid, unless you take them apart.

I saw a video on a site where the guy used q-tips to apply the acid directly , but I'm still not sure how he rinsed them

 

[Adcandour]

Muriatic Acid is frowned upon from the pros. Doesn't look bad though, imo.

 

[JonnyD]

I just went through this process. I watched that video and just got a big clear container and a small container for the acid. Put all my parts in the big container and then dropped in the acid. It only takes a little of the acid in the bottom of the small container to do the trick. I left it sit for 30 minutes and cleaned everything off with water. If you don’t want the rust just dry off the water. The vintage tuners I have had a grease that I could see inside and even with the splash of water to clean off the acid they still work properly.

The tip I have is, if you use the acid, it will take a few days to get the dullness you want. So leave it in the acid smoke until you think it’s where you want it, remove your parts, clean off the acid, then let it air dry overnight. Keep repeating until you get the results your after. My parts looked like nothing was really happening so I left it for few hours. Clean and dried the parts. The next day the parts were way over done. I was going for the heavy relic but not that much.

If you have cheap metal parts I think the acid works really quick. USA actual metal parts take a lot longer to age so just keep an eye on it.

 

[JonnyD]

 

[Wardo]

Friend of mine in high skool used acid for changin things and it didn't work all that well - he lived out on the side roads and he told me that sometimes when he got home at 3:00 am in January there'd be egg men guarding the driveway and he couldn't get to his house have to freeze his ass off in the car till the sun came up.